Rubber moldings are commonly mounted on the sides of automobiles to protect car doors and the sides of the cars from dents or scratches, caused when doors of adjacently parked cars strike them as they are being opened. In addition, they are used anyplace where a surface has to be protected or decorated.
The rubber moldings are inserted in metal channels which are mounted on the sides of the cars. These metal channels typically comprise a base and attached side or leg portions. The leg portions of the channel may incline toward each other. The rubber moldings are often trapezoidal in cross-section, and the sides of the trapezoid adjacent the lower or larger base may be cut away to define shoulders which engage the free ends of the side or leg portions of the channel.
In order to protect the sides of the car and car doors from the above described dents and scratches, the rubber molding has to be fairly strong, so although it is resilient, it is too hard to compress or squeeze using hand strength alone. For time to time the rubber molding in these metal channels must be replaced or reinstalled because it falls out, or because it has become worn or damaged. Heretofore, this was difficult and time consuming, particularly when the channels were mounted on the sides of the car.
A number of tools have been developed which are used to insert gaskets or filler material in grooves or channels, but those tools are not suitable for inserting hard rubber moldings into metal channels mounted on the sides of the cars. This is because the pressure required to force the moldings into the channels while they are still on the car is so great that it can deform the metal sides of the car. Further, even if the metal channels are removed from the car in order to insert the moldings, the pressure required to force the hard rubber moldings into the metal channels could deform and bend the metal channels.
One tool similar in appearance to the novel tool disclosed herein is designed for inserting gasket material in channels, see the patent to Hohoff, U.S. Pat. No. 3,307,249. This patent discloses a gasket inserting tool for inserting gasket strips inside a channel. The gasket material, which can be easily compressed, is made of loosely woven rope formed from smaller diameter conductive wires. Hohoff, taking advantage of this compressible characteristic of the gasket material, has developed a tool which is in essence a roller having flexible guiding sides with a groove formed at its periphery. The flexible sides of the roller are bent so they fit between the legs of the channel, and are in rotatable engagement with the base of the channel, See FIG. 2. Then, as the tool is pushed along, the base of the gasket material is fed into the grooves of the roller while the roller rotates. In this way the gasket material is rotated between the legs of the channel and is held there by friction.
The Hohoff tool requires the gasket material to be easily compressible in order to function because the gasket material has to be squeezed to a thickness which is less than the width of the inner sides of the groove on the periphery of the wheel when the sides of the roller are inside the channel. If the material cannot be compressed that much, the tool would not work. Despite the similarity in appearance, the Hohoff patent does not work the same way as the present invention and cannot do what the present invention does.
The patent to Kruszona, U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,305, discloses a tool for inserting filler material in a crevice. It comprises a handle with a roller at one end. The periphery of the roller is sized to enter a crevice and push the filler material into the crevice to a predetermined depth, see FIG. 2. The patent to Allen, U.S. Pat. No. 2,761,199, discloses a similar tool.
Other tools, such as those disclosed in the patent to Barnett, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,185,371, Sarvay, et al., 3,744,133 and Gruszecki, 2,533,367, are similar to each other in that they operate by having the tool enter the groove of the resilient molding or weather strip, so that a locking strip can be inserted into the spread groove. Then when the tool is removed, the groove embraces the locking strip which holds the groove spread for enough apart so that the weather strip or gasket or molding sealingly grips the metal or glass panels in a manner well known in the art.
None of the patents described above are directed to or can solve the problem this invention is concerned with because they depend on the resilience of the material forming the groove or the resilience of the softness of the material forming the filler. In contrast, this invention is concerned with the problem of how to insert comparatively hard rubber moldings into a comparatively rigid channel, without requiring the tool to enter the channel, and without requiring the exertion of such great force as to risk deforming the car doors or sides of the cars, or the sides of the channel.
What is needed, therefore, and comprises an important produce part of this invention, is to provide a tool for quickly and easily inserting a comparatively hard rubber molding into a metal channel without the exertion of great force.
Another object of this invention is to provide a tool which can hold a hard rubber molding to a predetermined curve, so that the curved portion of the molding can be easily inserted into a metal channel.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a method for inserting a hard rubber molding into a rigid channel without requiring great force.